Chinese Grand Prix - Race Round-Up
I SCREAM SUNDAY
Panasonic Toyota Racing will leave China empty-handed after
a desperately disappointing afternoon's work at today's Chinese
Grand Prix. The unsettled weather that has disrupted the whole
weekend continued on Sunday, with showers at the Shanghai
International Circuit throughout the morning. The rain stopped
shortly before the start but the race still took place on
a wet track. After the problems during yesterday's wet qualifying
session, Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli had it all to do
today from their grid positions of 16th and 17th. It was slow
progress in the early part of the race as both drivers were
caught in a snake of traffic for most of the first stint.
Because of the lowly positions the team took a gamble of switching
to dry tyres and filling up until the end of the race. The
switch came while the track was still wet and both drivers
struggled for the next set of laps, losing a lot of ground.
But as the track dried out, Ralf twice set the fastest lap
of the race up to that point. Unfortunately he did not make
it to the finish, succumbing to an oil pressure problem on
lap 49. Jarno earlier retired with a loss of pneumatic pressure
on lap 38. Toyota will now head to Suzuka hoping for a better
performance at next weekend's Japanese Grand Prix, the team's
home race.
Ralf Schumacher (Car 7, Chassis TF106/10B)
Race Classification: DNF
Qualifying Classification: 17th
Time: 1m48.894s (+4.766s in Q1)
Grid: 16th
"It's been a difficult weekend for us. Given that we
were starting from so far down the grid, we knew that today
would be hard work and so it proved. In the race we were reasonably
competitive but I spent much of the early laps in traffic.
So the team took the risk to change to dry tyres before the
track was really ready. It was a difficult decision to make
but we took the gamble because we were such a long way back.
It enabled us to fill up until the end of the race but we
lost a lot of time in the first few laps after the stop. The
situation gradually improved and ten laps later I even twice
set the fastest lap of the race that far. Unfortunately we
then had an oil pressure spike so we need to look into that.
But we just need to get things right during a weekend and
then we can be competitive."
Jarno Trulli (Car 8, Chassis TF106/08B)
Race Classification: DNF
Qualifying Classification: 18th
Time: 1m49.048s (+4.920s in Q1)
Grid: 17th
"That was a day to forget. Of course it was always going
to be difficult starting the race from so far back. We haven't
been competitive all weekend in wet conditions. The balance
was not too bad on the first stint but we were in a very long
queue of traffic. The pit stops came before the ideal time
to switch to dry tyres but the team took a gamble because
we were so far back and we had nothing to lose. Unfortunately
it didn't pay off. It was very hard to keep the car on the
road after that and we lost a lot of ground on the rest of
the field. To make matters worse I then suffered a problem
with the engine's pneumatic pressure and we had to retire.
But every day is different so we head to the next race hoping
for a better weekend and a change of luck."
Tsutomu Tomita – Team Principal
"Starting from where we were on the grid after our bad
luck with the weather and the red flags yesterday, we knew
it was going to be hard to make up ground. So we had to be
aggressive to try and salvage something from the day. The
first part of the race the pace of the car was okay, but we
were blocked behind Coulthard who was apparently on a different
strategy. From then on we had to take a risk to try and catch
up otherwise we would have ended up far from the points. We
were fuelled quite long for the first stint just to be able
to wait for the track to dry out. When we were about to pit
the conditions were still not perfect for dry tyres, but still
we went for it because it was the only possibility to come
away with a good result. It was a risk that did not pay off
but we had to try it and I still think it was a good decision.
Both drivers performed well but later in the race we had some
issues on both cars, Jarno with a pneumatic consumption problem
and Ralf with oil pressure so we had to retire both cars.
I'm very sorry for the problems to the fans and to the drivers
but we will now work hard for a result at Suzuka next week."
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